Unity Technologies has launched Unity Game Simulation, a service that enables game studios to complement their pre-launch playtests through the power of Cloud Simulation. The solution was released today as part of the Google for Games Developer Summit and is now available in open beta, which includes a free trial.
As the press release reads, Unity Game Simulation significantly reduces the time and cost associated with pre-launch testing. Unity’s solution achieves this by simulating millions of game playthroughs quickly and accurately on the cloud. Ultimately, this will help game studios of all sizes and budgets achieve their desired game balance. By launching on Google Cloud, Unity is also able to operate the Unity Game Simulation service at scale, resulting in higher stability, elevated security, and continuous integration & delivery.
Danny Lange, VP of AI and Machine Learning, Unity Technologies, said:
“Even well-developed games fail when they are not properly balanced. Traditional methods to balance a game rely heavily on human playtesting and countless manual redeploys. The entire process is costly, slow, and inefficient. A better way to balance your game is with Unity Game Simulation, where you can run thousands of gameplay simulations in the cloud that can provide more accurate results to leave playtesters to focus on subjective criteria like game feel and the fun factor.”
Furyion Games was among the first companies to test Unity Game Simulation for Death Carnival. Death Carnival is fast-paced, top-down online multiplayer shooter game, featuring a robust and complex weapon socket system. Furyion creators used the tool to run thousands of simulations to identify the right combinations of base weapon and ammo. Moreover, the calculated the weapon module, and power up for desired survivability and level completion time.
Herbert Yung, Founder and Director of Furyion, added:
“Through the development of Death Carnival, we had our team try to balance every weapon by grinding. Using Unity Game Simulation saved us hundreds of hours and tens of thousands of dollars of labor. Because of its seamless integration with the Unity Editor, we were able to run simulations, then quickly make gameplay tweaks within moments. This process hundreds of times faster than with playtesters. Also, we were able to design our simulation to provide high-quality results. This really changed my perspective on the best, most efficient way to game balance.”
Unity Game Simulation aims to complement the traditional game balancing process. It also aims to relieve playtesters of the burdensome, repetitive aspects of testing. The technology also serves as an alternative to inaccurate and cumbersome tools, like spreadsheets, currently used in today’s studios. With Unity Game Simulation, game creators can spend more time focused on the human-centric aspects of game creation, such as design, while also reallocating game budgets for non-testing initiatives like marketing and community-building. This, in turn, results in faster time to launch and overall improved player perception of games.
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
Contact: Email